Western Province secure bonus point Currie Cup win as they weather epic Griffons fightback

Western Province secured a bonus point victory over the Griffons in their Currie Cup encounter on Friday but had to see off a determined fightback from the home side in the second half.

RECAP | Griffons v Western Province

The 25-21 win sees them move up to fourth on the log, although other teams may again go above them depending on results over the coming weekend. 

Province opened the scoring in the 21st minute through a Clayton Blommetjies penalty for a 3-0 lead.

In the 31st minute, they extended that lead to 8-0 when flanker Jarrod Taylor crashed over for an unconverted try.

On the stroke of half-time, Western Province scored again after an excellently worked line-out move saw hooker Andre Hugo Venter claim the visitor's second try.

Blommetjies couldn't convert, but Province took a 13-0 lead into half-time.

Enterprising running in the opening minutes of the second half saw Province skipper Jean-Luc du Plessis cross the whitewash in the right-hand corner.

With Blommetjies adding a tricky conversion from the right-hand touchline, Western Province now had a comfortable 20-0 lead and were threatening to run away with the match.

The bonus point try followed a few minutes as scrumhalf Thomas Bursey jumped on a handling error by the Griffons, kicked ahead, collected to push the score out to 25-0. 

With Province down to 14 men, after Kwenzo Blose was sent to the bin for repeated infringements in the red zone, the Griffons scored their first try of the match through winger Domenic Smith.

Jaywinn Juries added a difficult conversion from the left-hand touchline to cut the Western Province lead to 25-7 in the 60th minute. 

The home side scored again in the 69th minute through centre CJ Coetzee as they clawed their way back into the match.

Ju